Dear fruttyfruit8,
I can recognize myself in many ways in your messages.

The breastfeeding problem - happend to me also. I wanted to breastfeed him for a long time, but I got stressed because of the health problems my son has had.
The useless part -in my case, not bringing money into our home.
The bath part, ha ha, yeah... me, too, not much I can do before the husband comes back home, )
 
Depression is much more related to the way we women handle emotions, and much less related to food, especially during pregnancy. There's an entire practice in many schools to balance emotions, it's not the case here to mention any of them.
As many of the moms here told you, if you look at what you have now, with your kid... And if you start thinking of what you both can do to be happy and enjoy life... And when you and your husband find time only for yourselves and communicate, and share love, care etc...
Then things are going to look more brightly in your eyes and you'll see life as it is: interesting

The hard times for our baby aren't over yet. Still, we pass rapidly through the tough experiences and enjoy as much as we can the other moments.
I, too, love perfection. And because of that, I suffer when it's not perfect. But, with the help of my life partner, and our little joy, I've started to accept that life is beautiful as it is, if you can only look in a different way.

Take care,
Andrea

I was pregnant during my entire last year of university studies. It was great, because I memorised and understood the information better. So the pregnancy helped my intelligence  .
But regarding the kid, I think he now knows more about logistics, distribution, marketing, management etc. 
Really, my mom was pregnant while teaching Physics and Chemistry in a highschool. I must say her passion for physics really marked me as a fetus, cause all my life I loved studying it and I'm really attracted to it, even though I'm innerly inclined more to foreign languages, computing and others.

I don't know, amath, maybe the real question is "Do your studies fit the role of mother that you choose to be? Can you manage both after the kid's birth?". Cause surely the child will benefit, somehow, but you shouldn't worry about that, just do what you feel like doing if it suits you. 


Andrea

Ayesha, thanks!

After reading the first article you gave me, I must add I'm one of those mothers who don't have physical support from anyone else but her husband. So the three of us, parents and the kid, must take care of everything. One salary to live by is interesting ... but it's not my style to be satisfied with just taking care of kids and family, I need to help somehow, too .
I decided to take care myself of my children at least for their first three years, no matter what happens. This first boy really needs my love, care and attention, especially with all he has gone and he will go through since birth (traumatic experiences/health problems, but all's well when ends well).
So parenting is my top priority. And as the article points out, one can do both good parenting and have a career with a little management of our own life (depending on parents' priorities and choices and all of that, of course).


After several hours, I have managed to watch the first 4 videos in the second link you gave me.
Amazing! This Marcus Buckingham is so right! I've watched those women and listened to his ideas and I saw myself in so many of them, in fact in all of them, in my life.

Thank you again, its' inspiring!

Andrea

I'll soon be 28 - and my son (the first kid) was born half year ago, while I was 27.
It's the first of as many as life will let me have 
I wanted a girl... but during pregnancy dreamt it's a he... so "he" was    and I love him very much. He's changing our lives in better in ways that we've never imagined.

Andrea

Hi, again!
I don't know personally Deneen, only through emails.

Thank you all for welcoming me.
I just hope to have enough time not only to learn from you all, but also to share my (very little  ) experience.

Andrea

Hi, I'm new!

"I have a question...
While taking care of my kid at home I still have some time to work, using our laptop.
Do you know any serious things I can do and be paid for? I didn't enter the forum to find something to work, the idea has just came up these days. You see, in my case, the financial support from the local authorities isn't enough for my child (is less than mothers receive normally for their kids, just because I didn't fit anywhere in the law we have today for mothers of 0-3 year olds)."

The quoted is a message I sent to Shuki, who answered me and gave me the idea to look onto www.monster.com and also start a topic here.

So, dear parents, does anyone have any other ideas?

I would appreciate any help, cause I can't bear to just stand and wait little money to come, when kid is growing... and family's need grow too. 
(I'm from Romania, Eastern Europe, EU country, in case it helps. If anyone needs some information regarding my experience, knowledge etc, please ask.)

Thanks!

Andrea

  Hi, everyone

Thanks to Deneen Lewis, who has a yahoo group, I came here, ready to learn from mothers and fathers all over the world how to help my 6 1/2 mo kid.

I love the Doman method, and right now I'm using the computer to show him flashcards. In our case, I have to be very inventive cause it's quite expensive to buy the cards directly form Gentle Revolution or anywhere else.
He enjoys it very much. After starting the reading program I've seen him prattle more, and he even pays more attention to anything written in more than 40 points.
I will have to make my own written cards, not only those on the computer, as there are no flash cards in my native language (Romanian). It will be another opportunity for me to live my childhood again with my son.

I've also started to download and use some of the PPT files in the sharing area, so I thank all those who made them and shared them with the rest of us.


Blessings to all!

Andrea